VHS Capture Problems and Techniques

[mike1961]

Strange things are happening. Here's my situation:

I have found two main ways to capture video from old VHS tapes. Either I can capture it directly to my computer through my NVidia DualTV capture card and let Sage capture it via a Timed Recording or I can capture it to the hard drive in my camcorder and my camcorder will automatically convert it to mpeg 2.

Here are the problems:

1. NVIDIA Problem: First, my VHS can only use the RCA out (or coax/F Connector). But, the RCA out must go to the sVideo in on the nVidia card. So, I have to use the nvidia RCA --> SVideo adapter. When I do this - it looks horrible and the capture is in distorted black and white. I do not understand this at all. I can use the coax instead and that looks decent but it is my understanding that RCA has better quality than Coax perhaps because the audio and video are separate.

2. Sage Problem: So, I have to use the coax instead and then it works. But, on SOME VHS tapes Sage does not capture it right. It's like part of the video captures, part of it is totally black and part of it "flutters." It's not tracking either - it's like the video "flutters." When it is totally black if I fast forward / cue it then I can see it cue. At first I thought it might be the VHS tape. But, if I try and play it from the VHS directly to TV or I try and capture it with my JVC Everio then I do not have this problem at all and the VHS plays just fine.

3. Everio Problem: So, why not just capture everything with my Everio camcorder? Well, some videos (in fact many and not just when capturing but when recording as well) seem to have some kind of problem where there is no sound on some of the media players. The sound works just fine with the Nero player but does not work in Sage or many other media players unless I re-render everything under Ulead or another video renderer.

Anyone else experiencing these kind of problems?

Thanks,
Mike

[Paul H]

Is this a comercial tape,if so could be a MacroVision problem. MacroVision is comerical anti-copying software protection.

[stevech]

I've fed composite video into the aux video in of my Hauppauge PVR USB2. Sage has this jack as a video source, so I can just schedule a manual recording on it.

[mike1961]

I don't think it's a macrovision issue. Ironically, I've had no problem archiving some tapes that say they are macrovision encoded. But, other tapes seem to have this problem that don't say they are encoded. So, I suppose it is possible. As I previously stated though, I'm not having a problem with the video on my camcorder but the audio is an issue with some tapes (with or without macrovision).

Thanks,
Mike